After having seen YES at the Anaheim Pond, I was going to pass on the second swing of their North American tour, however, YES added Dream Theatre to their tour. I had never seen Dream Theatre, but I love listening to progressive rock. What a line up this was going to be! With that said, Dream Theatre did not dissapoint. They were absolutely awesome(even if that word is overused nowadays. Most of the songs that Dream Theatre played I remember from their earlier CD's from about 10 years ago. During the middle of their set they went into a cover of YES' Machine Messiah. INCREDIBLE. In fact, I bet half the YES fans that were there at that time didn't event know that they were even playing a YESSONG.

When I am asked what progressive rock is, I usually point to some of the bands that came into prominence during the 70's, such as YES, ELP, Jethro Tull, Genesis, etc. However, there are many newer bands, such as Dream Theatre, Spocks Beard, countless other Eurpoean groups. Prog rock lives but is very underground and has never topped the "charts".

I won't go into all the details of the YES concert song by song. At the Universal Amphitheatre, the sound was flawless and LOUD. The flawlessness was probably due to the UA having a "house" sound system. I have never heard a concert there with a bad mix. YES was right on it tonight. I commented to a YEShead next to me that tonight I would trade an hour of Dream Theatre for an hour of YES.

If Dream Theatre was awesome this night, YES was incredibly awesome. Everything they did was so tight and inspired. The whole concert was a highlight of the evening. I have to say that some standout moments above others were Steve Howe and Rick Wakeman playing off each other during South Side of the Sky, Chris Squire's story about the blues shuffle version of Roundabout with Wakeman pulling out his newspaper with the headline about the "World Gone Naked", the whole song Awaken.

Again, there were no dissapointments, however, the only way YES could have improved on this set would have been to work Close to the Edge into the set. Again, the addition of Dream Theatre was worth it.

I look forward to the release of the DVD of this tour in a few months and YES' live boxed set CDs. Hopefully, YES has at least one more studio release with the Anderson, Howe, Squire, Wakemen, White lineup.

YES and Dream Theatre, Thanks so much for a such a special evening.

Jon Anderson:
Thank you so much. Thank you so much. It’s great to be with you this evening. We thank you all for coming out. We’re going to sing, ahh, we’re going to sing a well-known phrase or saying. Please sing along. We’re in the key of, that key. Here we go. Wooh!

Jon Anderson:
Thank you so much. We’ve been traveling all over America for the last two months, been driving around and seeing how beautiful, really beautiful America really is. It’s amazing to be able to, me, me and my wife, Jane, here she is. And we had a great time in Niagra Falls. It was like a second honeymoon there, it was lovely. Lovely place. So, America is quite an amazing place to live. You guys are seriously, so lucky! So lucky! You’re so blessed. Here’s a song by Paul Simon, who says we’re still looking for the true America. And we seriously are, it’s coming.

Jon Anderson:
Rock ’n’ roll! Rock ’n’ roll! Rock ’n’ roll is here to stay! Here’s a piece of music, we put together this piece of music in 1956, I remember. July, through July. It took us about three days to stick it together with sellotape, in those days, sellotape to stick it together. I’m sure it will work, on the night. ‘Yours Is No Disgrace’, ‘Yours Is No Disgrace’!

Jon Anderson:
They’re going crazy out here. Thank you so much. It’s so wonderful! So many years, so many years ago we put that song together, and here we are tonight, we have an audience to hear our music, and we’re so blessed. Thank you so much! Thank you so much! Thank you. It has truly been an amazing journey. So many, many years together. We appreciate it so much. Let’s listen to Steve Howe on his guitar. Here we go!

Steve Howe:
Thanks so much. You’re very kind. Thank you.

Jon Anderson:
Thank you. Thank you so much. I truly, I truly remember writing that song in Jamaica one time. I think it was 1971. I started writing it and originally, it was bit more of a (sings) Long distance runaround, long time waiting to find me some ganja, hey. I still remember the dream there, I still remember the time I got so high, yeah! Did we really tell lies, letting in the sunshine. That’s about it. Wooh! We’ve all been young, we’ve all been young and foolish once. We’re now old and foolish, but we don’t mind. We don’t mind. Wooh! Okay. We were in Switzerland one time, living in a sort of make believe world. We lived in this seriously beautiful, make believe world, we created around us. Kind of amazing. And ahh, we wrote an album called ‘Going For The One’, which was quite a trip! Just sticking to the rule book, you know, make music. And ahh, one morning I woke up and I saw my kids asleep in bed and I looked at them and I wrote this song about having the eyes to see them, this song.

Jon Anderson:
Wooh! Okay, at this moment in the proceedings, we need you to ahh, relax, don’t get too excited, because it’s Alan White in his kilt! Come on. Every night he promises that he’s just going to do it, but tonight, come on we’re in about the best place to get some promotion. Over to our ahh, our CNBC reporter. You know him as, ahh, in lala land, Mr. Chris Squire.

Chris Squire:
Ahh. Good evening, you naughty southern Californians. I’ve lived in this town, I know what you get up to. Alright, so, um, here’s a story that some of you who were at the Anaheim pond probably have heard already, but to refresh your memories, to refresh your memory, and for those who weren’t there, this is a little story about when Alan and I were in the Tokyo Hilton. He’s a great accompanist, isn’t he? So, um, we were discussing the fact that ahh, where, how we were going to re-do ahh, the acoustic version of ‘Roundabout’ and we were looking, we were looking for a different groove to play along with it, so ahh. Is that the Daily Mirror, Rick? Ahh, so um, Alan suggested that ahh, we try and do a like a good like American blues version, ahh, with a good shuffle groove. And ahh, and so we got to the studio in L.A. and I said to Rick, “can you give us a great, fantastic piano version of an American blues version of ‘Roundabout’?” And he went (Rick plays). And all of us said “that’s fucking brilliant, Rick! We’ll do it like that.”

Jon Anderson:
Brilliant!

Jon Anderson:
Thank you. Okay. Ahh, yeah, I was just thinking how, how long we’ve been working together. Musicians, we’re like a crazy family, as you can imagine. Most of the time I call it group therapy. Most of the time. But, one of the things you learn is ahh, strange um, idioms, or maybe, anyway [??]. There it is, that! That! Do it again, Alan. That is a paradiddle. Of all things to call, that is called a paradiddle. Now, to me that is a forearm, that’s a bass drum beat, ba-boom. So you put about three or four of them together, you get this introduction to a song. We need, we need you to sing along in the chorus. Wooh!

Jon Anderson:
Thank you. Wooh! (sings ‘There’s No Business Like Show Business’). Laa. That was for Jane, there you go. Show business, there’s no business. [??] What were we doing? We were doing something and I said, oh man, I gotta remember to say something about something, but I forgot what it is now. But it was really good actually, what I was going to say about something. It’s amazing to be able to ahh, make music and ahh, I remember the time when we did this next song. We were sort of in this wonderful cocoon, of ahh, we were very much ahh, like a band so much in harmony. Sorry? Can I help you, please? What’s that? Okay, we’ll do that one as well, okay. So there we were, Tuesday afternoon, ten o’clock, and we were in this cocoon. And we believed that music was really all that it was about. It wasn’t about the business. It wasn’t about money. It was all about music! And really, it’s truly amazing that we’re here, you know, over thirty years later and to be able to sing this song, and play this song. Because we still feel that this song is so important, you know. So, peace man.

Jon Anderson:
Thank you. Thank you. So many moons. You are my sunshine, my only sunshine, you make me happy when the skies are blue. You’ll never know, dear, how much I love you. Please don’t take that sunshine away. Wooh! Love is so powerful, love is everything! There’s only one thing that you learn in your life, that love is everything, everything! Love is everything. There’s really nothing else. There’s just love, love, love, love, love, love. It’s so powerful. It’s so powerful. Wooh! When you awaken, you wake up every day. You wake up every day, you have that choice to feel good, feel good, give it out, give out the love, give it out. Peace man, peace. Peace is very good for you. Here’s a song called ‘Awaken’.

Jon Anderson:
You guys! Wooh! Okay. Thank you so much everyone for tonight. Thank you so much. Thank you for Dream Theater. They’ve been a great band to come on the road with. Thank you to Ben, our lighting guy. A wonderful, great job. The sound guy, Jeff Dix and a great crew out here, who take care of us every night. It’s amazing what they do. They’re just wonderful people and we’re very, very fortunate. Again, thank you all for being here with us here tonight. It’s the end of our thirty-six year cycle, as it would be, for a while. Here we go with ‘Starship Trooper’. ‘Starship Trooper’!!